What China's social media is saying about Ukraine

This anti-Western framing is also widespread in online debates about the crisis. The flood of nationalistic pro-Moscow comments on Chinese social media focus less on Russia itself or on dissecting Russia-Ukraine relations, and more on NATO and the United States as having pushed Moscow into self-defense mode. In response to an illustration of NATO’s geographical expansion posted on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian, commenters were quick to attack NATO: “NATO will pay for its blood debt,” “NATO has no limits, and its aggressive ambition will trigger pushbacks,” “No one can endure the eastward expansion on such a scale.” Another popular Weibo post that has generated more than 4,600 shares argued that wars are necessary for long-term peace, and that the U.S. has to abandon its pursuit of hegemonic power. These comments grant little to no agency to Ukraine, blaming or ridiculing it for aspiring to join the wrong great-power alliance. (To be sure, alternative voices have emerged in recent days on the Chinese internet, offering sympathy for Ukraine through shared stories of Chinese expats in the country and war-zone scenes, but these either are short-lived because of censorship or gain limited traction compared with the more assertive anti-U.S. posts.)

Both official and unofficial comments further underscore the alleged double standards employed by the U.S. and other Western countries; many, for instance, contrast Washington’s concern for Ukraine with its slow condemnation of the 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, or set U.S. anger over the invasion against American military interventions in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, for instance, accused the U.S. administration of criticizing China for not doing enough to end the Ukraine conflict while itself failing to maintain international peace and stability. On Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, a viral video posted by a stand-up-comedy account mocked Western countries for swiftly implementing sanctions on Russian art, sports teams, and even cats, in contrast to their subdued reactions to an array of U.S.-led attacks and conflicts. The video attracted more than 49,000 likes.

This use of pro-Russia comments as a way to contest the moral standing of the West fits into the larger pattern of the growing combativeness of China’s diplomatic rhetoric.